Rocketeer Reboot?

Sci-fi and geek culture website IO9 has caught an early whiff of what could be this decade’s answer to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, with a rumour that Disney may reboot The Rocketeer.

I confess that I know very little about The Rocketeer beyond what I’ve seen in trailers and in fanart hereabouts, and when it’s compared to the Conran brothers’ adventure tale of rayguns, robots and a rocket bound for a new Earth, it’s arguably more subtle in its raypunk tone. As we saw in Captain America, however, this can still result in a thoroughly entertaining piece of work – and as IO9’s Meredith Woerner says, it’s likely that this Marvel piece is being taken as a proof.

From what I can tell, The Rocketeer is a thoroughly art deco-influenced story of a Howard Hughes-made jetpack and the pilot who accidentally finds it before mobsters deliver it to a Nazi secret agent. The jetpack is seen as key to the war effort, but as you can guess, it makes a hero instead in the form of pilot, Cliff Secord.

You can view the trailer for 1991’s The Rocketeer (starring Billy Campbell) below:

As for what this could mean: a Disney reboot in this day and age could spawn a whole heap of art deco-themed excitement, and while there’s nary a raygun to be seen so far, jetpacks and evil empires are rich pickings indeed for a nice slice of raypunk hype. I shall be keeping a keen ear out for developments over the next couple of years.